Kiipu

Do you by chance remember from which country these fittings were purchased from?

There are several threads on those ジャワ刀 [Java swords] at NMB and WRF. The one with the clearest markings can be seen at the link below. An Appraisal on Some Japanese Swords Please Sword Number 3 As you state, the ジャワ刀 seem to be officer's swords based upon the fittings while the 造刀 [zō swords] being discussed here are most likely NCO swords as this is the tassel that shows up on them, or at least on two of them.

Some of these Type 100s have marking on the nakago mune near the habaki. Does this one have any markings in that location?

I have been able to tentatively identify these swords as made in Indonesia, formally Dutch East Indies, during the 1943 to 1945 time frame by the Japanese army. The Japanese Army established an arsenal at Bandung バンドン, Java, in October 1943. I think this arsenal is probably the source for these swords. If not the actual source, then the arsenal supervised the production of them. The British landed on the island after the war and that is why they are showing up in the United Kingdom on a consistent basis.

Planned sword production in China for the Japanese Army for fiscal year 1945, 1945-04-01 to 1946-03-31, was 10,000 swords. The information is coming from a September 1946 United States Army intelligence report on Japanese ordnance activities in China. The Americans interviewed both Japanese and Chinese ordnance officials and visited many of the factories making ordnance.

Yes, that is the stamp. I should have said tsuka and not saya. The numbers in red look like 943.

I ran across a similar stamp on a scabbard (edit: tsuka) as the one you depict on your tsuba. It is located toward the bottom of the webpage linked below. Kanenori 兼則 1943-10 昭和十八年十月

My thoughts too. They wrote 一 (1 = one) vertically instead of horizontally.

Translation below. 興亞一心 = Kōa Isshin. 満鐵作 = Mantetsu saku = South Manchuria Railway (SMR) made. 昭和甲申春 = Spring 1944. Please post additional pictures over in the Mantetsu thread, in particular the markings on the top of the tang by the habaki. Attention Mantetsu Owners: A Survey

It is not unusual to find naval swords, both old and new, that have two logos on the fittings. In the case of your sword, neither logo is currently identified. Thanks for sharing the interesting pictures.

Thank you Barry for the prompt reply. I will list the sword as just "October 1943." The characters on the pictured tang are 天照山鍛錬場鍛之 and as already indicated in post #2 it was made by Tenshōzan 天照山. The earliest date I have seen is 1938 and the latest is the one listed above. The swords made after 1943 appear to be undated.

Just do a search using "Tenshozan" and they will show up along with a few others. It should yield about two pages of which there are many repeats. Good luck!

Barry, did you by chance get a picture of the date? This is the highest date I have run into so far on a Tenshōzan 天照山.

Ed Hicks, is this blade dated by chance? If so, and still at hand, what is the date?

Bruce, you must not be looking very hard! I have the following Tenshōzan dates, all coming from NMB. At some point, the blade dating seems to have stopped? 1939-04 No anchor via NMB. 1939-08 Anchor via NMB. 1942-02 No anchor via NMB. 1943-05 Anchor via NMB. All others undated.

The translation of the blade markings are below. 東京砲兵工廠 = Tōkyō Artillery Arsenal. 明治十九年製 = Made in 1886.

One of the three Meiji-era Japanese Army short swords and it can be found in Dawson's book. This version is just dated and has no crossguard serial number.

I just recently tracked that sword down and here is a link to it. RAREST Unknown type pattern of the late war 1944 Japanese NCO Sword My initial thoughts when seeing the "Island Sword" was that it fell into the late war category as per the link below. Was the sword acquired in Australia or from some other country? last ditch naval rinji?

Below is a link to my naval zig-zag tassel inquiry and Nick's reply to it. Launch documentation for the 1937 introduction of the new Navy Gunto (Posts #30 to #32) I thought to myself what if someone dyed an army general tassel brown? Would it not give the appearance as is seen here? I realize this is rather far fetched but should be taken into consideration and the tassel should be carefully examined to rule this possibility out.

An interesting find and a sharp eye to boot. Do you have any other information on the sword, such as a mei or date? It looks to be army judging by the fittings.

The third and final citation. Citation information is taken from the title page and hence Cillo is listed as the author. Presumably this is the third printing even though it is not stated as such. Cillo, Livio W. An Oshigata Book of Modern Japanese Swordsmiths, 1868–1945. Darlington, MD: Livio W. (Chuck) Cillo, 2001. [Third printing?, red softcover, back cover has $99.95 in lower right corner.] The copyright page can be found at the link below. An Oshigata Book of Modern Japanese Swordsmiths 1868-1945

I am of the opinion that the swords linked below could be the final variation made by Mantetsu during the war. This is based upon the one known serial number and the style of fittings used. The only known serial number follows after the previous recorded Mantetsu serial numbers. The fittings on the final variation are identical to the fittings used by Mantetsu on the swords made for the army in 1944. Any comments, corrections, or constructive criticism welcomed. Mumei with unknown nakago mune markings. Late War Army Officer Sword Mumei with い 一一七〇 nakago mune markings. Attention Mantetsu Owners: A Survey (Post #470) Mumei with Japanese numbers on the nakago mune. Attention Mantetsu Owners: A Survey (Post # 488)

This is where I downloaded the picture in my files. It was posted back in 2015. Possibly this is one of the sources of the picture. Arsenal Stamps.

Since posting, I have learned that the word leatherette could just mean "fake leather." Artificial leather However, in the context of World War II, the 2014 post could also be referring to what is called presstoff (also preßstoff or pressstoff). Presstoff The Japanese developed a saya (scabbard) cover made out of paper during the war too. Pressed-paper Saya Cover Hopefully, BangBangSan will also look into what the Chinese character(s) are and see if something like this was used in China during Word War II.

The source of the second picture can be found at the same 2014 GBF thread above. See post #7 by Stegel. Direct link below. Late War Shin Gunto, or post war tourist copy???